Process of removal of oil from textile fibers



March 28, 1950 G. H. WOOD ET AL PROCESS OF REMOVAL OF OIL FROM TEXTILE FIBERS Filed Oct. 21, 1947 mmvrozas a Fund (/n va; J: uni; niiifi l r 5:21.221 .12

Patented Mar. 28, 1950 PROCESS OF REMOVAL OF OIL FROM TEXTILE FIBERS Gordon H. Wood, Sutton, and Carleton 8. Francis,

Jr., West Harwich, Mass., assignors to The Feiters Company, Inc., Millbury, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application October 21, 1947, Serial No. 781,232

6 Claims. 1

This invention relates to textiles and more especially to improvements in methods of fabricating textiles of the type employing fibrous materials which are subjected to operations such as picking, garneting or carding, then formed into webs or batts, and thereafter carried through hardening, shrinking or other operations.

In connection with preliminary steps of treating textile fibers such as for example picking, garneting or carding, it is customary to introduce into the fiber an oily substance which serves to protect individual fibers while they are being so worked. Carded fiber is usually produced in the form of a plurality of thin fragile webs which, in the case of felt making, are then superimposed upon one another and subjected to shrinking and hardening operations. After this, the oily substance is removed from the fibers in the course of finishing operations by scouring the fibers either with a dry-cleaning agent or by use of soap and cleaning solutions, with subsequent rinsing. Such scouring processes may also be carried out with other fibers as well as felt fibers and are expensive in the case of the dry-cleaner, and time-consuming in the case of the soap treatment. Drying is commonly necessary to remove either the solvent or the rinsing water. It is also found that the operation of shrinking and hardening of batts of fiber in felt making is very materially impeded by the presence of the oily substances on the fibers of the batts, since adjacent individual fibers tend, by the presence of shrinking, can for example be carried out in the absence of the oily substance on the fibers, thus greatly facilitating these operations as well as simplifying later fulling and finishing operations. Other objects and novel features will appear from the following description.

We have discovered that the oily substance referred to may be efllciently removed from fibers when such fibers have been formed into a thin web or batt, in which state they are very easily contacted throughout their exposed surface by a current of air. We find that by subjecting the mass of fibers in the web or batt formed to a moving current of air heated to suitable temperatures, oil separation can be very quickly carried out. The separation of the oil from the fibers is manifested by the appearance in the current of air of a light smoke of a bluish color which appears to be highly characteristic of the presence of the oily substance and which quickly disappears when removal of the oily substance has been completed. Removal of the oily substance in this way is found to leave the fibers in an unimpaired condition. In the figures shown in the accompanying drawing, we have indicated diagrammatically one suitable apparatus for in so doing to fail to become interlocked with one another as completely and as quickly as is desired. However, removal of the oil before hardening, utilizing any of the conventional procedures is not practical, owing to the fragile nature of the web construction which is not adapted to such treatment and which is easily pulled apart and damaged by excessive handling.

The method of the invention deals with the problem indicated and avoids the difllculties noted byremoving the oily substance from the textile fibers at a point in the manufacture of a fabric at which the beneficial effects of the oily substance can be realized without being subject to the difllculties outlined above. This is especially the case in felt making. Later operations in the felting process, consisting of hardening and carrying out the method of the invention. The method and the apparatus about to be described are applicable to various textile materials where a fabric has been either partially or wholly formed. Thus in the case of goods such as a knitted fabric, it may be desired to avoid washing and scouring operations in order to prevent shrinking. Because of this fact it becomes necessary to exercise great care in using the proper type of oil since it may have to be left on the fibers in the completed article and difllculties from ofisetting of the oil must be avoided. Especially of interest is the application of our method to a textile operation such as felt making, and particularly where we may desire to manufacture batts and then utilize this material without further hardening such as in connection with making mattress fillers, punched stock for rug base material and the like. In other cases, we may with advantage utilize our method where both the forming of batts and the hardening operation are to be carried out.

One specific procedure dealing with both forming batts and hardening will be described, noting 3 specific materials and operating conditions in making a. pressed felt. First, a plurality of batts are prepared from a mass of fibers which have been treated with an oily substance and which are subjected to usual carding operations. This web is preferably arranged in the form of a roll and then placed in the heating unit illustrated in the drawing in which l indicates a casing, into one side of which air is drawn by a fan l2, and heated by some convenient method such as the heating coils l4. l6 denotes an opening through which unheated air is introduced into the casing and dampers l8 and 20 provide a means of regulating flow of air around the heating coils and through the casing. The damper I8 may be regulated by a control member 22 responsive to a thermostat element 24 and the damper 20 may be controlled manually or by a mechanical control such as that noted for damper l8. At the opposite side of the casing is a chamber 26 for receiving a current of air from the fan and passing the air upwardly through a conduit 28. In-

' terposed in the path of movement of the current of air thus guided is a system of rolls for receiving and conveying the roll of felted batt material. denoted by numeral 30, held in a confined posit on in the casing.

A web from roll 30 is passed along a perforated conveyor apron 32 driven by the apron rolls 34 and 36. Arranged between the two apron rolls 34 and 36 are two sets of sealing rolls which prevent heat from entering into that portion of the casing occupied by the roll 30. Each set of rolls is made up of a bottom roll 38, an intermediate roll 40, and a top roll 42. Also the two sets of rolls are separated from one another a suitable distance, varying in accordance with the speed of movement of the web and the heat exposure period desired.

The web of material on roll 30 is unwound and moved across the space between the two sets of sealing rolls into the path of a current of hot air which is moving upwardly in the direction indicated by the arrow in the figure of the drawings. The current of hot air cont nuesthrough the web, which enables this current of heated air to come into contact with the surface of each fiber in the web and thus raise its temperature. We find that an air current velocity of 6 linear feet per second, heated to a temperature of from 250 F. up to 310 F. will give unexpectedly good results, with the oily substance in'the fibers exposed rather suddenly becoming vaporized in the form of a bluish smoke described above, and carried away.

The vaporized oily substance taken from the fibers thus treated is carried away in the current of air to a condenser unit 44 which collects oil and passes it to an oil reservoir pipe 46. The deoiled web is wound upon the roll shown at the right-hand side of the equipment as viewed in the drawing. From here the de-oiled web is passed over a platen roll whichmay be moistened and subjected to heat and pressure to cause'hardening and shrinking to take placein the usual manher.

As further illustrative of the use of specific materials and actual changes taking place by the above-described method, the following is noted:

A number of batts formed from carded fibers in the usual manner and having the usual oil content of approximately by weight, were separately passed through the heating apparatus above noted and results obtained as set forth in the following table:

Speed Average of 11m No. Weight Temp. figgl oil in batt chamber after treating Pounds F. YdaJmin Per cent 1 56 250-310 1 2.6 2 62 l}; 2. 2r- 3 62 2% 2. 40 4 G9 1% 2. 2 5 25 1% 1.75

' It will be apparent that by the treatment described, a substantial part of the oil present in the stock may be removed in a relatively uniform manner. By varying the time of exposure of the web or the velocity of the current of air, or the temperature of the current of air, it becomes possible to obtain removal of greater or lesser percentages of oil without unduly affecting the quality of the fibers. We further have found that when subjecting samples of stock such as those above noted to a subsequent hardening operation, we are able to reduce materially the hardening time; for example, as much as one-third of the time used in the conventional hardening operation where oily substance is present on the fibers.

From the foregoing it will be found that we have provided a novel and eflicient means of removing externally occurring oily substance on fibers and we may efficiently carry out oil removal at convenient points in the manufacture of textile goods, both of a felted type and various other woven types. In case of the felting process, additional advantages accrue from improving upon the hardening operation.

We claim:

1. That improved method of making a textile which comprises introducing an oily substance into a mass of fibers, carding the oil-bearing fibers to form a batt, passing a current of heated air through the batt to remove substantial portions of the oily substance, then hardening and shrinkin the fibers to form a felted material.

2. That improved method of felt making which comprises forming a batt of fibers, said fibers bearing a protective oily substance thereon, passing the batt through a current of hot air to remove some of the oily substance, and then hardening and shrinking the fibers to produce a felted material.

3. In a method of making felt, the steps which comprise forming a batt which includes wool fibers, said wool fibers bearing thereon an oily substance, heating the batt to volatilize portions of the oily substance, and then hardening and shrinking the de-oiled fibers to cause them to become felted together in a textile web.

4. In a method of making felt, the steps whic comprise passing a batt which contains woo fibers'bearing oily substances thereon through current of air heated to a temperature at which the oily substances are caused to vaporize and then felting the fibers to form a textile material.

5. That improved process of making material which comprises carding a mass of wool fibers into a batt in the presence of an oily substance which serves to protect the fibers-during the carding operation, then exposing the batt to a current of air heated to a temperature at which the oily substance is readily carried away from the fibers, thereby leaving the fibers in a substantially de-oiled condition, and then subjecting the batt to hardening and shrinking operations facilitated 2% improved felting properties of the de-oiled ers.

6. That improved method of making a textile i i I REEEBENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 30 me of this pateniz:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 223,633 Belknap Jan. 20, 1880 1,813,750 Mackenzie July '7, 1931 2,044,937 Eustis et a1 June 23, 1936 2,409,747 Folmer Oct. 22, 1946 REFERENCES Woolen and Worsted Spinning by Collins, published in 1909 by the American School of Correspondence of Chicago. Pages 294 and 295. 

